infrastructure

President Trump will finally be unveiling his long-awaited $1.5 trillion plan to repair and rebuild the nation's crumbling highways, bridges, railroads, airports, seaports and water systems Monday. But, the proposal will not be one that offers large sums of federal funding to states for infrastructure needs, but it is instead a financing plan that shifts much of the funding burden onto the states and onto local governments.

A cornerstone of President Trump’s campaign and presidency is a $1 trillion proposal to rebuild U.S. infrastructure. The promise is a popular one, and could find bipartisan support across the country and in Congress. The infrastructure needs in Oklahoma illustrate why this issue is so appealing — and challenging.

The Oklahoma City Council heard from the public Tuesday morning on bond and sales tax proposals that would inject more than $1.1 billion in funding for public safety and infrastructure.

Sgt. Mark Nelson of the Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police advocated for the funds going to public safety, noting that as Oklahoma City's population has grown in the past 20 years, police staffing numbers have remained about the same.

Despite America's rapt attention on former FBI Director James Comey's testimony, the White House has been observing Infrastructure Week. Infrastructure is one of the only policy areas that could have crossover appeal, but there has been little real movement so far on getting something through Congress.

Director Mike Patterson says this comes after the legislature removed $150 million from the program which keeps work going on Oklahoma’s roads and bridges.

“Last year we had to reduce the eight-year plan by $323 million,” Patterson says. “These are cumulative numbers, and so, if you look over the last six to eight years, the impact has been $800 million.”

Three new sales tax and bond proposals could raise more than a billion dollars for public projects in Oklahoma City.

Two of the proposals would replace the one-cent MAPS 3 sales tax, which will expire at the end of this year, according to a city press release. Part of the MAPS tax would be replaced by a permanent one-quarter-cent sales tax to be reinvested into the city’s General Fund, which pays for public safety, animal control, parks, transit and other basic services. The tax is expected to generate $26 million per year.